Letter: Debt clock ticks while Congress wastes precious time

Too many in Congress have wasted precious time on the ticking debt clock with their partisan bickering.

Republicans ignore the fact they loaded the financial gun now pointed at our collective wallets. GOP leaders led America down an economically irrational “guns and butter” road by putting the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and massive tax cuts on the national credit card.

Democrats share part of the blame in their adding of Medicare drug costs to the overall bill — owed in large part to our economic opponent, China.

Debating Democrats have been the most responsible in suggesting serious budget cuts but have held out against reductions in programs needed by limited-income retirees, a suffering middle class and the poor, who suffered most in the recession brought on by profiteering and Bush-era Wall Street deregulation.

Intractable Republicans are failing to do their part, claiming taxes shouldn’t be raised because of a tough economy. That line of reasoning deserves a closer look at the facts.

A recent article in The New York Times noted “two years into the economic recovery, U.S. companies are investing in equipment, not jobs.”

In the same time period, Commerce Department reports show that business payroll spending has grown just 2 percent while equipment and software purchases have risen 26 percent.

The department also noted the economy is producing as much as it did before the Bush-era downturn, but with 7 million fewer jobs.

Meanwhile, CEOs are making 18 percent more (the top 500 got $12 million) while U.S. workers got just 2.6 percent additional (to an average $46,742), according to a USA Today analysis.

It is time that Congress collectively acknowledges this reality and agrees to raise taxes on those who obviously can afford them. That won’t do the job entirely; rational budget cuts also are needed to put this nation back on a sound financial path.